The most philosophical footballer

Wednesday 15 January 1969 04.39 EST
First published on Wednesday 15 January 1969 04.39 EST

Joe Mercer, Manchester City's manager, tells the story of the day he was asked to take part in a television show in London. Among the guests announced were Derek Nimmo, Spike Milligan, and Joe Mercer, "manager of Manchester United." "Blimey," said Joe to himself, "they've given Matt the bloody sack at last."

They have not in fact given Sir Matt Busby the sack at Old Trafford but they have agreed reluctantly to accept his resignation as team manager. They have appointed him as general manager instead, which means that he will have far less to do with the playing side of the club and far more with the administrative. Which was what yesterday's press conference at Old Trafford was all about. Cameras, lights, and questions; reminiscences and a bit of bathos. Heaven alone knows why. It is, after all, only the end of one era and the beginning of another, and the results that Sir Matt has achieved over the past 23 years are not likely to be squandered even if they are not repeated.

The power

We may never know whether Manchester United were the most popular and successful postwar team in England because they had the most popular and successful manager, or whether the reverse were true, and that Sir Matt's success was achieved largely because he had the material, and later the power and influence, to replenish his stocks when illness and tragedy depleted them.

Certainly he was one of the most efficient players of one age, and the most successful manager of the next. He was also the luckiest according to many envious and less richly endowed of his species who based their opinion on the fact that Busby had a rich inheritance when he went to Old Trafford in 1945. But not every inheritance is used to best advantage, although Busby, like a good Scot should, made the best of his. When this "gentlest mannered and most philosophical of footballers" took up the managerial position that had been vacant for seven years, he met for the first time players whose talents had been discovered and developed by far-seeing directors and other officials of the club. In short, he was off to a flying start. He then made those players more aware of their own capabilities and those of their colleagues, and he experimented until he discovered the most effective combinations.

"I was lucky in having such players at my disposal when I went to Old Trafford," Sir Matt told me once, "but I realised that you need more than luck to survive. I wanted to achieve a sound club, and I knew that I would need a lot of good, young players to help me in my plans. I never wanted Manchester United to be second to anybody. Only the best would be good enough. I had to have players who would play for me and for United rather than for themselves, if you understand what I mean. And I usually found what I wanted."

In support, if support be necessary, of Sir Matt's philosophy, his persuasive powers, and his remarkable influence on his men, one has only to consider United's honours list since he took command.

Individual distinctions scarcely less than the collective have poured into Old Trafford, and Matt Busby himself was not overlooked, although his days for caps and winners' medals were long since passed. For him there were the CBE, the Freedom of Manchester, and after United had thrashed Benfica at Wembley, a knighthood. Justice had been done, and had been seen to be done for United and their manager. There just was nothing left except the World Club championship, and United one day probably will win even that as well.

Now there are those in the abodes of the envious and less successful who will argue that Sir Matt has got all he can out of the game, and because United are having a bad season-at least they are according to their usually high standard-now is as good a time as any for him to get out while he's still at the top. But he's not getting out, and he's not likely ever to want to. Friends who are associated intimately with him know full well, however, that the strain was bound to tell, and he has been under increasing pressure for many years. And although he would never admit it himself, I do not think that he has ever recovered fully from Munich and its aftermath. That he recovered as well as he did was as much a miracle as was his concentration and determination when he returned to the throne of power.

He has inevitably lasted much longer than most of his kind, and while heads have rolled regularly in the managerial profession, Sir Matt has kept his in more ways than one, and the club have prospered accordingly. If he has been "on a good thing" well, so have United, and both are quite content with what they have. For Manchester United and Matt Busby have become legends in their own right, whatever others might think.

It will seem strange in the years ahead to read or hear the expression "United's Boss," and realise that he is no longer Sir Matt, while the United's players themselves will have to find a synonym. So far as they are concerned there is and always has been only one "Boss" at Old Trafford. And he will still be of incalculable worth to Manchester United. What he is worth to football the world over is not to be calculated either.